


After The World Ends

by exolunaticshipper



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: A hierarchy is depicted here, Continuation of A Place For Us, Death (not MCD), Dystopian!AU, Fate, Love, M/M, Red String, Religious Connotations, Romance, Smut, Unrequited Love, Use of Slaves, War and Weaponry, depections of violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-14 15:47:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,391
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28673190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/exolunaticshipper/pseuds/exolunaticshipper
Summary: If you’re surviving, breathing, living after the collapse of modern civilization- after everything has  crumbled beneath your finger tips and you’re left in the darkness alone... it will never really be the end now, will it?Chanyeol learns the hard way that there is no 'up', only down. And The Down, has secrets of it's own.And somehow, fate has a mind of it's own.
Relationships: Byun Baekhyun/Park Chanyeol, Do Kyungsoo | D.O/Kim Jongin | Kai, Kim Junmyeon | Suho/Oh Sehun
Comments: 1
Kudos: 2





	1. Sulfur Cosmos

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all,
> 
> This is my first dystopian au, built off the one I wrote for the Christmas Twt Fics 2020.  
> It's going to be dark and there's going to be a lot of different elements and a lot of different view points. Please read the tags before you start this.  
> I will also be tagging possible triggers before chapters that have a influx of violence or dark themes.
> 
> I hope you enjoy it and thanks for reading!

**Chapter 1: Sulfur Cosmos**

_Definition:_ _symbolizes friendship or even slighted love_

4 months before The Collapse

 _Cosmos_ , Tier 5, City in the Sky

_Cosmos_ was a lot of things. It was a city in the sky, created by the lavish, overgrown riches of the wealthy who had once been on the Earth below. To them it was buildings and footways made of petty change in their pockets.

It was also known as the ‘ _Sulfur City’_ , where the rich discarded their trash, and the poor used it to build their homes and their livelihoods.

The _Sulfur City_ was only slightly less beautiful than the other cities in the sky, Chanyeol’s parents reminded him of that daily. How lucky he was to be here, how grateful he should be.

But Chanyeol didn’t see the charm in _Sulfur Cosmos_ , the Yellow city. To him, it was entirely artificial. Even the poor were rich, the rich even more so, yet nobody- nobody he had seen would mention the earth down below.

When he had been younger still, Chanyeol had questioned a lot of things. He had questioned why the sky was always blue and the grass always green, he had questioned what happened to people when they just began to vanish. And he definitely questioned what was down below.

What was under the layers of thick smog, fumes and pungent gas that their city was thankfully too high up to smell fully. And he had tried to peek as a child, swore that he could see eyes peering back at him through the haze- nothing clear, probably the consequences of an over active imagination, his mother had chided.

But it was in his gut, he could feel it churning, something- or someone was down there and they were _watching_.

Cosmos was his childhood also. Chanyeol would remember it like it was yesterday, regardless of if he was now nearing twenty in a simple three months. Probably because there wasn’t a lot to remember.

He had never been liked, never been noticed- hard work, passion, ambition- they were not things that were smiled upon on Cosmos. It was backwards in his brain, how could they be so privileged, be so supposedly free, when they could do nothing they wanted and go nowhere they wanted to go? It didn’t make sense, yet he obstinately obeyed.

There was only one thing taught in this city- everything, your very being was devoted to the elders- respect them, love them, pour all your admiration, respect and riches onto them- and you too would succeed as they had, you would be allowed to climb the tiers until you were so far above the ground, the old earth below would be nothing but dust.

And yet hardly anyone saw any wrong in this, no one ever went against the elders.

Those that had once upon a blue moon, the very few that Chanyeol had only heard of and never seen, had all supposedly disappeared, with no real explanation as to where or how.

The boy sighed despondently, zoning back into the current day as he polished his shoes and his mother smacked him upside the head as she passed with a humourless shake of her own;

“No complaining in this house, Chanyeol- if the elder’s should hear you sigh so energetically, they’d have you treated” She scolded, as he rubbed the back of his head at the particularly harsh palm. “Go and help your father dress and eat, then you can go to wherever it is that you’re so desperately trying to leave me for”

Chanyeol grinned and hugged his mother, she was tough and difficult with him at times, especially for a grown man, but he loved her.

She was the reason surely why he still dreamt of anything, why he still wanted to write and read and dance to music. It was why he did not simply want to sow seeds or stay trapped in an office as a corporate stooge to the elders and ministers who bowed once in the Sanctuary of _Demet,_ where all the people were told to pray for the health of their elders and then simply lived their lives in sin.

At least that’s how Chanyeol saw it, not that he really got to voice any of this out loud. Not here at least.

He entered the living room with a sigh, glad that his mother was too far away to hear him and his father...

His father was with them physically, and up until a few weeks ago, mentally. But something in the last few weeks had meant he had deteriorated faster.

The rules of the Cities in the Sky did not allow for sick leave, not for sicknesses like this. You had to work to pay homage to the elders who had given them such decadent lives when they could have just let them live in squalor.

And so his father had worked, right up until six days ago, when he had collapsed. Upon waking, his memory which had already been fading, had completely vanished.

His father who had once ran an entire work force, now dribbled against his shirt, his eyes were blank and unmoving. He sat in his chair, facing the television. He’d forgotten to eat and to dress, he’d forgotten to shower and to brush his teeth.

He’d forgotten about them too.

That was the most heart-breaking thing.

The way his father screamed in terror every morning when Chanyeol came to wake him to help him wash and dress, the way his father lashed out at him with fists and feet alike when he tried to feed him too.

But the worst, was those slim, desperate moments of clarity where his father saw his son. And he cried for what he had become.

Shaking his head to clear what was becoming a pretty tiring thought process, Chanyeol walked up to the chair and tapped his father’s arm gently;

“Papa, Father... come, let me help you get dressed?”

The man in the chair grumbled, but allowed himself to be helped up and walked to his room. He was surprisingly spritely today.

Today would be his last day with them. If people could no longer work they were taken to centres to live out their lives, to ease the burden on their families. Most who passed through the doors of the Centre never really came out again and visits were hardly ever permitted.

Just as he was about to dress him his mother bustled into the room, “Give him here, I’ll get him ready.” She let out a soft breath looking at her husband and her eyes seemed more tired than ever “That Oh boy is waiting for you at the door.”

Chanyeol grinned at her and kissed her cheeks hurriedly “Thank you ma, I’ll be back before bed!”

Mrs Park chuckled at her hyperactive son, before grabbing his wrist “Now Chanyeol, you be careful okay? There’s been... there’s been talk and I don’t want to say anything bad because I don’t know if it’s real. But you keep your wits about you, you hear me?”

Chanyeol blinked at her, confused momentarily, before snatching his wrist back and nodding “Yes of course, ma, always.”

It was odd because his mother had never worried about his whereabouts, Children were always returned by wardens. The city was always safe, there was no crime statistic of any kind, people didn’t litter or smoke or kill. There was no danger.

But if that was the case... what had his mother been so terrified of?

If he had glanced back, just once, he would have seen what she had been staring at frozen, as she pulled a comb through her husband’s hair.

He hadn’t.

“Sehun!” Chanyeol grinned, grabbing the slightly thinner male who startled at both touch and the voice before sinking into it;

“Yeol!” He groused “You scared me, I thought it was... I don’t know- the robot wardens. I hate those things. I don’t understand why the curfew age has gone up either. Just when we’re about to hit our twenties.”

“Correction, I’m about to hit my twenties” Chanyeol raised an eyebrow at him “You are still a baby, my baby, but a baby nonetheless”

Sehun blushed at the words, cheeks warm under Chanyeol’s soft eyes “Uh,” He cleared his throat hastily, lest Chanyeol notice his wandering his eyes and his warm face. Not that he would, he hadn’t in all the years that they’d been friends, why would he notice now?

He only had eyes for one person- the only other person who paid him any attention, the pastor’s son, Kyungsoo, the third side to their friendship triangle.

“Come on, I promised Kyungsoo we’d get to the Demet before four and it’s already five past, he’s going to be pissed”

“Can’t you just say that you’re running late because your mum is obsessed with respecting the elders.” Sehun rolled his eyes but split into a jog next to Chanyeol. The things he did for love.

“I can’t say that.” Chanyeol grumbled “Knowing my luck, my mum will hear me”

Sehun let out a hoot of laughter “Fuck, yeah that’s true, you reckon she’s a robot too, Park?”

Chanyeol shoves him playfully and they bicker with each other as they descend the hill to the Sanctuary of Demet.

“Why is she so protective, like this is the last place anyone is going to get hurt” Sehun scoffs when they finally reach the bottom, crossing his arms across his chest as he waits for Chanyeol to stop picking yellow flowers “Even Kyungsoo’s dad, who literally meets with the elder’s isn’t like that.”

Chanyeol turned around with a sad shrug “I don’t know man, I only know it’ll get worse once my dad goes to the centre. Okay?” His smile turns gleeful “Do you know what these are?”

Sehun blinked at him stupefied, but humours him all the same “I don’t know, what are they?”

“Cosmos.” Chanyeol answers, twirling the little flowers between his fingers “Specifically, _Sulfur_ Cosmos, it signifies friendship. Like me and you” Chanyeol hands him a little yellow flower, and Sehun’s heart cracks a little more.

He had always know it, _of course_ he had.

But beautiful doe eyed Chanyeol, with his flushed cheeks and happy smile, with his limbs flailing- ever handsome Chanyeol, as decadent as the palaces on Canopus, the leading City in the Sky, would never be his.

He had prayed that destiny would prevail, that the little red string he had heard so frequently about would appear one fateful day. Yet... it never did.

 _And it never would_.

“It’s also what the city is named after.” Chanyeol thinks aloud, staring at the little seeds of the flower, at the way the petals droop after mere minutes from the soil. “The Yellow City, after a tiny, yellow flower.”

The rest of the walk to Kyungsoo’s house is quiet, both of the boys in deep, saddened thoughts.

It probably would have continued for longer if a smaller man hadn’t grabbed them both, pulling them inside a small alley before the Sanctuary gates.

“I have...” Kyungsoo gasped in a breath, clutching his knees as he panted “I have something I need to tell you guys, something I heard, you’re never going to believe it”

“Soo? What about?” Chanyeol thought his heart would explode. It couldn’t explode before he obtained his red string. He was sure Kyungsoo was the one, he just couldn’t understand what was taking so long.

“It’s about what the elder’s are going to do next” Kyungsoo glances around once more, before pulling them up the steps of the Sanctuary;

“I know how you both feel about this place, please- you know I do. But my father is inside so you must show proper respect.” Kyungsoo eyes darken, looking far off “You have no idea what happens if you break the rules. What the elders are capable of”

The shorter man didn’t leave any room for questions, turning promptly to open the large, solid oak doors “My Father, I have returned”

“Come bow before the Pools of Demet. Wash yourself of the filth you have touched” A tall slender man approached from the shadows, his face curved into a grimace;

“ _Of the filth you have bought here with you too_.”

**


	2. Sanctuary of Demet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **GRAPHIC DEPICTIONS OF VIOLENCE.**  
> Includes Religious themes also, please note this religion and the basis of is mostly made up from random things in my head and is not based of one specific religion.

**Chapter 2: Sanctuary of _Demet_**

_Defintion:_ _meaning bouquet (of flowers), derived from the Greek Goddess of Fruitfulness, Demeter._

4 Months before The Collapse

 _Sanctuary of Demet,_ Cosmos.

“Father, my apologies, I... you know Chanyeol and Sehun?” He smiled hopefully, and his father pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Kyungsoo” He huffed out “All of you wash before you step inside.” The man growled, before turning back to his son “I have told you about bringing people inside without speaking to me about it, son, I’ll discuss this with you later.”

If Chanyeol had paid attention, rather than keeping his eyes glued to the floor, he would have seen why Kyungsoo had been frozen in terror. He would have seen the glassy dead look in Pastor Do’s eyes, at the ruthless that hid behind a man who preached about peace and tranquillity.

He hadn’t.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long for the old man to leave, shuffling away from them and into his own office.

Kyungsoo pulled them through the rows of seats to the library door on the far end of the sanctuary, pushing it open and tugging through in one breath.

“Kyungsoo, please you’re scaring me, what have you heard?” Chanyeol looked at his friends, between Sehun who he had know since he was young, and Kyungsoo, who his heart yearned for like the pianist for a piano.

They sat down as they usually would, the Sanctuary of Demet flooded with warm light.

“I was working in here” Kyungsoo started, fingers fiddling together “On my father’s accounts for the elders. H-he had told me he would be meeting with them and not to disturb him on for any reason.”

Chanyeol and Sehun exchanged a wary look, they had heard about elder meetings before. An occurrence of fear rather than something to be praised;

“But I found something missing from the accounts, it was silly really... I shouldn’t have gone. But I did, because he is my father- I was worried...”

“You were worried the elders would hurt him if they found something was missing” Sehun filled in helpfully and the shorter boy nodded;

“Y-yes, before I was about to knock, I heard them talking.” A deep breath filled the hushed silence “You know the cities are in tiers right?”

A single nod of confirmation, simultaneously.

“Well, you know _Canopus_ is Tier Sixty, warped well above everyone else. Nobody works, they have the lower tiers to do that.” Kyungsoo shook his head “The elders, their Sanctuary is there. My father’s position... they’re doing something dreadful.”

“Like what?”Chanyeol pried, because Kyungsoo had spoken so many words only to tell them what they already knew.

“When the elders supposedly created the cities in the sky, people had to pay their way in. Your parents and mine did so. My father’s payment put us on tier twenty, but my mother’s only put her on five. My father only came here after my mother departed to the centre months ago.”

“I heard the elders saying that the payments from the first ten tiers were too low, incomparable to what was being paid by the other tiers. They say the lower tiers are becoming a burden. They plan to –“

“Kyungsoo!” His father’s voice snapped through the empty library “Where are you boy, I need you to make me a drink and bring it to my office!”

“Y-yes father, at once!” Kyungsoo jumped up, rushing away.

Chanyeol’s gut churned. Something wasn’t right.

“Sehun, you stay here okay? Whatever you do, do not leave” Sehun looked at the taller, dumbfounded;

“Chanyeol are you stupid, if Pastor Do catches you, he will kill you.” Sehun hissed, grabbing his forearm.

The taller looked at him, face softening “I can’t let anything happen to Kyungsoo, Sehun. When you fall in love you’ll do the same believe me”

Sehun wanted to punch him and tell him he already had, but he doubted now would be the best time to do so.

“Alright, don’t be a clumsy fuck and stay quiet.”

Chanyeol grinned and squeeze Sehun’s palm “As a mouse”

He paced through the library and onto the hallway he knew led to the kitchen, just in time to over-hear the crack of a whip through the air and pained sob;

“Gossiping Kyungsoo?” His father snarled, voice clipped but amused, like he enjoyed the tremors wracking the smaller boy “Your readings teach you that is wrong, gossiping about the elder’s is wrong.”

“I know father, I was just- Ah!” He screamed as another lash stripped clean through the air.

Chanyeol peeked through the gap in the door. Kyungsoo was on the floor, his shirt pulled down around his shoulders as his father whipped his upper back, blood trickling through parts of the broken skin;

“There is no just, you know they will do worse if they find out.” Pastor Do straightened himself, reigning in the whip back to his belt, under the obnoxiously large coat he wore. “And you don’t want them to find out do you?”

“N-no father” Kyungsoo bowed his head, meek and destroyed under the beating.

“Very well, tidy yourself up before you return to your filth. I mean, your _friends_. And see them out before supper.” His father stopped just before the door and Chanyeol hid behind it, praying the shadows would cover him from the man’s beady eyes “And Kyungsoo, remember, I can always hear you, I know everything that you say, so be a good boy and do as you’re told”

Chanyeol doesn’t hear a response, only feels the rush of air from the door swinging open and hiding his frame from the Pastor as he strode away towards his office. The taller waited until he was around the corner before rushing into the kitchen where Kyungsoo had straightened himself up, eyes on the floor.

“Soo.. oh my god, Soo, are you okay?”

“C-Chanyeol what are you doing here... you need to go back to the library” Kyungsoo mumbled, never meeting his eyes “Please, my father will be more angry if he finds you in here with me.”

Chanyeol wanted to leave, but he was angry “I want to give him a taste of my mind, Soo. He can’t do this to you.”

Kyungsoo placed a tender hand on Chanyeol’s shoulder, wincing when his shirt brushed an open wound “Yeol, I’ve been through worse than this, please, just go back to the Library. I’m okay, I promise.”

It’s the beautiful heart lips, and the eyes that still hold some light that eventually convinces Chanyeol to sneak back and sit dejectedly next to Sehun, neither saying a word.

It was a solid ten minutes before Kyungsoo returned, his face stoic and his eyes distant, almost as if recalling what had happened; “Come, I’m sorry it’s been so short but I’ll walk you out, I need to prepare my father’s supper.”

They make it to the steps outside when Sehun turns to him;

“Whatever he’s doing- your father, the elders, we can help Kyungsoo, please talk to us.”

Unlike the calm demeanour Kyungsoo had shown Chanyeol, the smaller’s eyes became dark and angry “How dare you. My father is a nice man, he would never do anything to me. The elder’s they’re respectable people, don’t dare slander them-”

The boys looked at each other confusedly, like Kyungsoo was deranged. Which he seemed he almost was. Deranged with anger about something he himself had hated only up until moments prior.

Out of character, Kyungsoo shoved against them both grabbing their jackets and attempting to fight them.

“Fuck Soo, what’s wrong with you?” Chanyeol yelled, grabbing Sehun’s arm and pulling him away from the steps of the Sanctuary “If you had wanted us gone, you simply should have said.”

_“I don’t_ ” Kyungsoo whispered, but it was too quiet for either boy to hear, they were too far gone, throwing cautious glances back towards him. His legs finally gave in as he crumpled on the steps themselves, conscience leaving him in pieces.

He hoped they would find his message sooner rather than later.

Chanyeol shoved his hands in his pocket out of sheer anger. He was angry that Kyungsoo wouldn’t speak to them, angry that he would praise his father as a good man after what he had witnessed, and the elders-

He could simply scoff at that.

Out of agitation, he dug his fingers further down, surprised to find a rumpled piece of paper.

Pulling it out, his eyes widened in shock. It was a neatly written letter, in Kyungsoo’s perfectly delicate scrawl.

_Help me._

_The tip of the whip my father used was laced with a drug that induces anger, that forces you to repeat certain phrases, and words. I do not mean what I will or have said._

_This is my father’s doing._

_He’s going to kill me._

_-K_

“Sehun!” Chanyeol shrieks “We have to go back, we have to- fuck, I can’t believe we left him- we have to go-”

“Chanyeol!” Sehun steadied him, eyes panicked as he sat the taller down “Breathe, what’s that-” He snatched the paper from Chanyeol’s iron grip, gaze rolling over the words. “Fuck. Holy fucking fuck, _shit_.”

“We have to go back” Chanyeol’s voice is on edge desperate.

“Yes, we do.” Sehun’s is surprisingly calmer, even though inside he’s shaking. How had they day turned out like this when before he was blushing in Chanyeol’s arms? “But! We can’t just rush back in there, if he’s going to kill his own son, do you not think he’d kill us too?”

“I don’t care Sehun, that’s my love in there- I can’t.” Chanyeol sputters, heart aching because even when he is so desperate, heart splintering apart, the red string of fate- of his destined love, to Kyungsoo he is sure- does not appear.

“Well care, Chanyeol” Sehun snaps, eyes livid for the first time “Just fucking care about yourself for once too, because there’s people that care about you.”

Chanyeol’s about to say something, his eyebrows furrowed in question when Sehun waves him off;

“You’ll be no use to your love, if you’re dead, will you?” He spits, glancing over the writing once again.

Chanyeol takes a deep breath. As usual, Sehun is right, they have to be careful, if they die- what then? Who will take care of his mother or Sehun’s brother? Who will save Kyungsoo?

He closed his eyes as Sehun muttered under his breath, imagining how they could do this. There had to be some kind of-

“The alleyway” His eyes snapped open “The alleyway Kyungsoo dragged us into was on the wall of the Sanctuary, there was window there, three floors up- that’s how we can get in unseen.”

Sehun smiles for the first time since his bitter comments “That’s the Chanyeol, I know, come on, we need to hurry, who knows what that madman has already done.”

They both stumble to their feet, rushing back the way they came.

It was stupid, but since living and breathing on this god-forsaken artificially peaceful city, it was exhilariating to find something that wasn’t. It would have been better if it didn’t come at the expense of someone he loved.

Sehun echoes his thoughts “It feels good to do something, I know it’s stupid, but it really does.”

They’re about to turn the corner on where the Sanctuary of Demet stands tall and proud amongst the smaller houses surrounding it, when Chanyeol grabs Sehun’s and pulls him back so they are crushed against the wall, body to body.

“Fuck... what time is it?” Chanyeol blinked at his watch “Nine Twenty- we’re past curfew. There’s a warden around the corner.”

“Are you fucking kidding me” Sehun growled, fingers reaching through his hair in frustration. “What are we going to do, he’s going to make it around this corner in the next three minutes Chanyeol... I... if we get caught... Kyungsoo...”

“I know... okay, I _know_ ” He wracked his brains, desperate for anything “I can’t Sehun, I can’t think of anything...I don’t know.”

“Two fucking minutes Yeol, we’re screwed” Sehun looked around terrified.

Chanyeol buried his head in his hands, there would be wardens out everywhere by now, alerted of the “children” who had not returned home and would be looking for them.

“Their software isn’t great, maybe we can distract them?” Chanyeol tried, watching as the minute dwindled.

“And what buy us thirty seconds.” Sehun scanned the area, “I have a better idea, but you’re going to have to trust me, okay?”

Chanyeol looked at him desperately, hastily following him as Sehun walked up the pathway of the house gate they had been leaning on;

“Sehun have you lost your mind? Are you totally insane- this, we can’t- we don’t know.”

“Just... trust me, please and just catch me okay?” Sehun pleaded, voice tight. He could hear the whirring of the robot warden’s mechanics edging closer “Please?”

“Okay.”

They knocked on the door and waited patiently.

A young man swung the door open “Who is it at this hour?”

Sehun crumpled against the man who stumbled back terrified; “What are you doing?”

“Sorry sir, please, my leg was trampled by a worker’s cart before and it hurts so badly, I... I can’t move it. _Please_.”

Chanyeol nodded desperately and the man looked between them two, at the clear cut looks of terror on their faces.

“Okay, fine, come in- both of you” He ushered them in, letting the young boy limp to a seat while the other stood awkwardly in the small space. They were an odd pair, the boy didn’t seem to be hurt in any aspect. The other seemed to have no real empathy for his friend’s pain.

He didn’t buy their bullshit story, it wasn’t easy to trust in a place where so many strange things happened without explanation.

He would find out exactly who they were and why they were in such a hurry.

The man smiled tightly at Chanyeol, gesturing to a seat;

“Please, take a seat, I’m Doctor Junmyeon _. Pleasure to make your acquaintance_.”

**

**Author's Note:**

> Please dont forget to leave kudos and comments- let me know what you think of it so far!
> 
> ~exolunaticshipper


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